The Wonders of Heaven Rev 21:18-23
“Some do not yearn to be near God because they do not find sin utterly repugnant or goodness wonderfully attractive.” C.S. Lewis stated “We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what it meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” So it is in our world. We are content with the mud pies the best we know because we can’t really imagine what heaven will be like. But Revelations helps us know more.
Rev 21:1-22:5 pictures heaven as the new Jerusalem, the Holy City coming to a new earth. The wall was made of jasper, and the city of pure gold, as pure as glass. The foundations of the city walls were decorated with every kind of precious stone. John describes it with the first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. These jewels are also representative of the 12 tribes of Israel.
The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass. John writes “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp.”
It is no surprise that holiness will characterize the eternal city. God is everywhere revealed as God of infinite holiness. No sin will abound in this place. It is eternal and everlasting. How can we understand perfection?.
The fellowship in Heaven will surpass anything that we have known on earth. Up there “God is with men; He will dwell with them, and God Himself shall be with them.” We shall enter into a fellowship with the triune God that is utterly unknown on earth.
In addition we will commune with the company of angels, as well as the saints who went on before us. There is complete righteousness, justice, and truth. There are no legal loop holes that people seek to cheat one another. There will be no lying lips or a judge that does not understand even the heart of the matter. God knows my heart and my intensions and my confusion and my doubts now. I don’t have to explain myself.
To the suffering and persecuted church God wants us to know there will be no tears, no death, no pain, no suffering.
Heaven is too splendid for our human hearts and too vast for our finite minds. So we see only a glimpse of glory.
Hope is the theme God gives throughout Scriptures as Christ redeems believers and is united with Him in a place that provides eternal joy.
Are you prepared?
